Systems and methods for presenting intermediaries

ABSTRACT

A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, an intermediary engine having a controller, and a storage medium for storing instructions to be executed by the controller. The instructions, when executed by the controller, can cause the controller to receive a measure of a mood of an individual, invoke an intermediary according to the measure of the mood of the individual, and present the intermediary to an entity requesting to interact with the individual. The measure of the mood can be synthesized from collected information associated with a behavior of the individual, and can have a plurality of dimensions. The mood can also indicate an availability of the individual and a receptiveness of the individual to accept a request to interact with an entity. Other embodiments are disclosed.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

The present disclosure relates generally to communication techniques andmore specifically to systems and methods for presenting intermediaries.

BACKGROUND

Instant messaging applications such as Microsoft's Windows Messenger™can provide users a way to track the availability of others tocommunicate. Windows Messenger™ can for example indicate that a targetedparty is online, away from his/her computer, or offline. Presence andlocation systems can be used in similar applications to provide thewhereabouts of an individual, the availability of the individual tocommunicate, an indication of the state of use of a communication deviceof the individual, and so on.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1-2 depict illustrative embodiments of communication systems thatprovide media services;

FIG. 3 depicts an illustrative embodiment of a portal interacting withthe communication systems of FIGS. 1-2;

FIG. 4 depicts an illustrative embodiment of a communication deviceutilized in the communication systems of FIGS. 1-2;

FIGS. 5-6 depict illustrative embodiments of methods according to thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 7 depicts an illustrative embodiment of a system for managingaccess to individuals according to the methods of FIGS. 5-6;

FIG. 8 depicts an illustrative embodiment of a multidimensionalrepresentation of an individual's mood according to the methods of FIGS.5-6;

FIG. 9 depicts an illustrative embodiment of an avatar engineoperatively coupled to or an integral part of the system of FIG. 7;

FIGS. 10-23 depict illustrative embodiments of metaphors for describingthe individual's mood according to the methods of FIGS. 5-6; and

FIG. 24 is a diagrammatic representation of a machine in the form of acomputer system within which a set of instructions, when executed, maycause the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologiesdiscussed herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

An embodiment of the present disclosure can entail an intermediaryengine having a controller, and a storage medium for storinginstructions to be executed by the controller. The instructions, whenexecuted by the controller, can cause the controller to receive ameasure of a mood of an individual, invoke an intermediary according tothe measure of the mood of the individual, and present the intermediaryto an entity requesting to interact with the individual. The measure ofthe mood can be synthesized from collected information associated with abehavior of the individual, and can have a plurality of dimensions. Themood can also indicate an availability of the individual and areceptiveness of the individual to accept a request to interact with anentity.

An embodiment of the present disclosure can entail a computer-readablestorage medium having computer instructions to receive a measure of amood of an individual to interact with an entity, and invoke anintermediary according to the measure of the mood of the individual.

An embodiment of the present disclosure can entail an avatar enginehaving a controller, and a storage medium for storing instructions to beexecuted by the controller. The instructions, when executed by thecontroller, can cause the controller to identify an avatar according toa measure of a mood of an individual to interact with an entity.

An embodiment of the present disclosure can entail invoking anintermediary to interact with an entity responsive to receiving ameasure of a mood of an individual to interact with the entity.

FIG. 1 depicts an illustrative embodiment of a first communicationsystem 100 for delivering media content. The communication system 100can represent an Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) broadcast mediasystem. The IPTV media system can include a super head-end office (SHO)110 with at least one super headend office server (SHS) 111 whichreceives media content from satellite and/or terrestrial communicationsystems. In the present context, media content can represent audiocontent, moving image content such as videos, still image content, orcombinations thereof. The SHS server 111 can forward packets associatedwith the media content to video head-end servers (VHS) 114 via a networkof video head-end offices (VHO) 112 according to a common multicastcommunication protocol.

The VHS 114 can distribute multimedia broadcast programs via an accessnetwork 118 to commercial and/or residential buildings 102 housing agateway 104 (such as a common residential or commercial gateway). Theaccess network 118 can represent a group of digital subscriber lineaccess multiplexers (DSLAMs) located in a central office or a servicearea interface that provide broadband services over optical links orcopper twisted pairs 119 to buildings 102. The gateway 104 can usecommon communication technology to distribute broadcast signals to mediaprocessors 106 such as Set-Top Boxes (STBs) which in turn presentbroadcast channels to media devices 108 such as computers or televisionsets managed in some instances by a media controller 107 (such as aninfrared or RF remote control).

The gateway 104, the media processors 106, and media devices 108 canutilize tethered interface technologies (such as coaxial or phone linewiring) or can operate over a common wireless access protocol. Withthese interfaces, unicast communications can be invoked between themedia processors 106 and subsystems of the IPTV media system forservices such as video-on-demand (VoD), browsing an electronicprogramming guide (EPG), or other infrastructure services.

Some of the network elements of the IPTV media system can be coupled toone or more computing devices 130 a portion of which can operate as aweb server for providing portal services over an Internet ServiceProvider (ISP) network 132 to wireline media devices 108 or wirelesscommunication devices 116 by way of a wireless access base station 117operating according to common wireless access protocols such as WirelessFidelity (WiFi), or cellular communication technologies (such as GSM,CDMA, UMTS, WiMAX, Software Defined Radio or SDR, and so on).

It will be appreciated by an artisan of ordinary skill in the art that asatellite broadcast television system can be used in place of the IPTVmedia system. In this embodiment, signals transmitted by a satellite 115supplying media content can be intercepted by a common satellite dishreceiver 131 coupled to the building 102. Modulated signals interceptedby the satellite dish receiver 131 can be submitted to the mediaprocessors 106 for generating broadcast channels which can be presentedat the media devices 108. The media processors 106 can be equipped witha broadband port to the ISP network 132 to enable infrastructureservices such as VoD and EPG described above.

In yet another embodiment, a common analog or digital broadcastdistribution system such as cable TV system 133 can be used in place ofthe IPTV media system described above. In this embodiment the cable TVsystem 133 can provide Internet, telephony, and interactive mediaservices.

It follows from the above illustrations that the present disclosure canapply to any present or future interactive media content services.

FIG. 2 depicts an illustrative embodiment of a communication system 200employing an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) network architecture tofacilitate the combined services of circuit-switched and packet-switchedsystems. Communication system 200 can be overlaid or operably coupledwith communication system 100 as another representative embodiment ofcommunication system 100.

Communication system 200 can comprise a Home Subscriber Server (HSS)240, a E.164 NUmber Mapping (ENUM) server 230, and other common networkelements of an IMS network 250. The IMS network 250 can establishcommunications between IMS compliant communication devices (CD) 201,202, Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) CDs 203, 205, andcombinations thereof by way of a Media Gateway Control Function (MGCF)220 coupled to a PSTN network 260.

IMS CDs 201, 202 can register with the IMS network 250 by contacting aProxy Call Session Control Function (P-CSCF) which communicates with acorresponding Serving CSCF (S-CSCF) to register the CDs with the HSS240. To initiate a communication session between CDs, an originating IMSCD 201 can submit a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP INVITE) message toan originating P-CSCF 204 which communicates with a correspondingoriginating S-CSCF 206. The originating S-CSCF 206 can submit queries tothe ENUM server 230 to translate an E.164 telephone number in the SIPINVITE to a SIP Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) if the terminatingcommunication device is IMS compliant.

The SIP URI can be used by an Interrogating CSCF (I-CSCF) 207 to submita query to the HSS 240 to identify a terminating S-CSCF 214 associatedwith a terminating IMS CD such as CD 202. Once identified, the I-CSCF207 can submit the SIP INVITE to the terminating S-CSCF 214. Theterminating S-CSCF 214 can then identify a terminating P-CSCF 216associated with the terminating CD 202. The P-CSCF 216 then signals theCD 202 to establish communications.

If the terminating communication device is instead a PSTN CD such as CDs203 or 205, the ENUM server 230 can respond with an unsuccessful addressresolution which can cause the originating S-CSCF 206 to forward thecommunication request to the MGCF 220 via a Breakout Gateway ControlFunction (BGCF) 219. The MGCF 220 can then initiate communications withthe terminating PSTN CD by common means over the PSTN network 260.

The aforementioned communication process is symmetrical. Accordingly,the terms “originating” and “terminating” in FIG. 2 are interchangeable.It is further noted that communication system 200 can be adapted tosupport video conferencing by way of common protocols such as H.323. Inaddition, communication system 200 can be adapted to provide the IMS CDs201, 203 the multimedia and Internet services of communication system100.

FIG. 3 depicts an illustrative embodiment of a portal 302 which canoperate from the computing devices 130 described earlier ofcommunication 100 illustrated in FIG. 1. The portal 302 can be used formanaging services of communication systems 100, 200. The portal 302 canbe accessed by a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) with a common Internetbrowser such as Microsoft's Internet Explorer™ using an Internet-capablecommunication device such as those described for FIGS. 1-2. The portal302 can be configured, for example, to access the media processor 106and services managed thereby such as a Digital Video Recorder (DVR), aVoD catalog, an EPG, a personal catalog (such as personal videos,pictures, audio recordings, etc.) stored in the media processor 106,provisioning IMS services described earlier, provisioning Internetservices, provisioning cellular phone services, and so on.

FIG. 4 depicts an exemplary embodiment of a communication device 400.Communication 400 can serve in whole or in part as an illustrativeembodiment of the communication devices 106, 108, 116, 201, 202, 203,and 205 of FIGS. 1-2. The communication device 400 can comprise awireline and/or wireless transceiver 402 (herein transceiver 402), auser interface (UI) 404, a power supply 414, a location receiver 416,and a controller 406 for managing operations thereof. The transceiver402 can support short-range or long-range wireless access technologiessuch as Bluetooth, WiFi, Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications(DECT), or cellular communication technologies, just to mention a few.Cellular technologies can include, for example, CDMA-1X, UMTS/HSDPA,GSM/GPRS, TDMA/EDGE, EV/DO, WiMAX, SDR, and next generation cellularwireless communication technologies as they arise. The transceiver 402can also be adapted to support circuit-switched wireline accesstechnologies (such as PSTN), packet-switched wireline accesstechnologies (such as TCPIP, VoIP, etc.), and combinations thereof.

The UI 404 can include a depressible or touch-sensitive keypad 408 witha navigation mechanism such as a roller ball, joystick, mouse, ornavigation disk for manipulating operations of the communication device400. The keypad 408 can be an integral part of a housing assembly of thecommunication device 400 or an independent device operably coupledthereto by a tethered wireline interface (such as a USB cable) or awireless interface supporting for example Bluetooth. The keypad 408 canrepresent a numeric dialing keypad commonly used by phones, and/or aQwerty keypad with alphanumeric keys. The UI 404 can further include adisplay 410 such as monochrome or color LCD (Liquid Crystal Display),OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) or other suitable display technologyfor conveying images to an end user of the communication device 400. Inan embodiment where the display 410 is touch-sensitive, a portion or allof the keypad 408 can be presented by way of the display.

The UI 404 can also include an audio system 412 that utilizes commonaudio technology for conveying low volume audio (such as audio heardonly in the proximity of a human ear) and high volume audio (such asspeakerphone for hands free operation). The audio system 412 can furtherinclude a microphone for receiving audible signals of an end user. TheUI 404 can further include an image sensor 413 such as a charged coupleddevice (CCD) camera for capturing or transmitting still or movingimages.

The power supply 414 can utilize common power management technologiessuch as replaceable and rechargeable batteries, supply regulationtechnologies, and charging system technologies for supplying energy tothe components of the communication device 400 to facilitate long-rangeor short-range portable applications. The location receiver 416 canutilize common location technology such as a global positioning system(GPS) receiver for identifying a location of the communication device100 based on signals generated by a constellation of GPS satellites,thereby facilitating common location services such as navigation. Thecontroller 406 can utilize computing technologies such as amicroprocessor, a digital signal processor (DSP), and/or a videoprocessor with associated storage memory such a Flash, ROM, RAM, SRAM,DRAM or other storage technologies.

The communication device 400 can be adapted to perform the functions ofthe media processor 106, the media devices 108, or the portablecommunication devices 116 of FIG. 1, as well as the IMS CDs 201-202 andPSTN CDs 203-205 of FIG. 2. It will be appreciated that thecommunication device 400 can also represent other common devices thatcan operate in communication systems 100-200 of FIGS. 1-2 such as agaming console and a media player.

FIG. 5 depicts an illustrative method 500 that can be applied to asystem 700 shown in FIG. 7 that can be overlaid or operably coupled tocommunication systems 100 and 200 of FIGS. 1-2 as another representativeembodiment of these communication systems. System 700 can comprise asynthesis engine 702, a collection engine 704, a negotiation engine 706,an intermediary engine 708, and a metaphor engine 710, each of which canoperate from common computing and communication resources such as, forexample, a server, mainframe or other suitable computing device with acapability to communicate over an IP, PSTN, or a wireless interface suchas those described above. System 700 can be used to manage interactionsbetween an individual and entities expressing an interest in interactingwith the individual.

Method 500 can begin with step 502 in which the collection engine 704collects from communication systems 100 and 200 data associated with anindividual whose communications and actions are being monitored for thepurpose of providing interaction management services such as thosedescribed by the present disclosure. To accomplish this step thecollection engine 704 can interface to a plurality of network elementssuch as routers, switches, DSLAMs, billing systems, provisioningsystems, or other common network elements of the communication systems100 and 200. The information collected from these network elements canrepresent, for example, network activity data, metadata, imagery andaudio data, location data, and subscriber account data, each having someassociation with the individual.

Network activity data can represent communication traffic originatingfrom the individual's use of resources of the communication systems 100or 200. For example, network activity can arise from the individual'suse of the ISP network 132 of FIG. 1 (sending emails, browsing theInternet, engaging in instant messaging, etc.). Network activity canalso arise from the individual engaging in voice or data communicationsover the IMS network 250 or a cellular system such as reference 117, orby the individual's viewing of a movie supplied by a VoD service of theIPTV media system of FIG. 1. Other sources of network activity that canbe derived from communication systems 100-200 are contemplated by thepresent disclosure.

The metadata can be collected by the collection engine 704 from an EPGsystem of the communication system 100. The metadata can be used todescribe media content consumed by the individual (e.g., movie genre,movie title, and so on). Imagery and/or audio data can also be collectedby the collection engine 704 from, for example, web cameras located in ahome (kitchen, family room, game room, etc.) or business establishment(office, reception area) of the individual. The imagery collected can bestill images, video content, or a combination thereof.

The audio data can also be collected from communication devices of theindividual (computer, desktop phone, cell phone, etc.) which can beselectively enabled by the collection engine 704 to provide audio-onlydata by way of a microphone integrated in the communication devices.Microphones can also be integrated with the web cameras or can beindividually located in a number of locations of the individual's homeand/or business to provide audio data to the collection engine 704. Theimage and/or audio data can be used to describe the environment andactivities of the individual. The image and/or audio data can besupplied to the collection engine 704 by the abovementioned deviceswhich can be represented collectively as image/audio sensors 712 of FIG.7.

The collection engine 704 can also collect location data associated withthe individual which can be represented by coordinate information(longitude, latitude) supplied by communication devices 116 of theindividual with a GPS receiver or from triangulation analysis performedon communication data supplied by network elements of communicationsystems 100 and 200. Other location data collection methods such asdetecting a proximity of communication devices to known WiFi antennaeare contemplated by the present disclosure. The collection engine 704can also receive subscriber account data from billing or provisioningsystems operating in the communication systems 100 and 200. Thesubscriber account data can indicate which services an individual issubscribed to, how much the services are costing the individual, wherethe individual lives, how many parties are located in the household ofthe individual, and the individual's payment or credit history.

Given the extensive communications and processing resources ofcommunication systems 100 and 200, it would be apparent to an artisanwith ordinary skill in the art that other sources of informationassociated with the individual can be collected by the collection engine704. For instance, the communication systems 100 and 200 can providetelemetry data to the collection engine 704. The telemetry data canindicate how often the individual utilizes any one of the above mediaresources (IPTV media system, cable TV, satellite TV, cellulartelephony, PSTN telephony, IMS telephony, Internet resources, and soon). The telemetry information can also indicate which communicationdevices of the user are powered down, which are powered up, as well asother states of usage of these devices.

The collection engine 704 can receive directives from the synthesisengine 702 to determine which information is to be collected about theindividual, how it is to be filtered (if at all) in step 504, and whenand in what format the collected information is to be distributed to thesynthesis engine 702. To avoid overburdening the synthesis engine 702,the collection engine 704 can be directed by the synthesis engine 702 toidentify incremental changes in the collected information and onlytransmit these changes to the synthesis engine 702. The incrementalchanges can be supplied to the synthesis engine 702 as collected dataupdates as shown in FIG. 7. The synthesis engine 702 can also applydegrees of importance (such as weighting factors) to aspects of thecollected information described above to manage the extent and prioritygiven to the collected data processed by the synthesis engine 702.

In step 506, the synthesis engine 702 can synthesize a measure of a moodof the individual from the collected data updates provided by thecollection engine 704. The measure of the mood can for example indicatean availability and receptiveness of the individual to interact withanother entity. In the present context the term entity can mean a humanbeing (such as friends or family of the individual) or an artificialintelligence system such as a gaming system, social networking system,or other system requesting an interaction with the individual. Tosynthesize the measure of the mood of the individual, the synthesisengine 702 can be programmed to determine from the collected dataupdates a context of activity of the individual, a location of theindividual, a state of usage of the communication devices or computingdevices of the individual, and a behavioral profile of the individual.

The context of activity of the individual can be determined in severalways. For example, aspects of the collected network activity canindicate to the synthesis engine 702 that the individual is watching atelevision program at home, is working at his/her computer in theoffice, is neither at home or in the office, or is on a business trip.Lack of network activity can indicate a state of rest for theindividual. The metadata collected from media content consumed by theindividual can also be used to identify what the individual is watchingon television (VoD movie, documentary, football game, etc.). Thelocation data can indicate that the user is at home, in the office,driving in an automobile, traveling on a train, sitting at a restaurantor a movie theater, etc.

Collectively, the above information can be used by the synthesis engine702 to determine a context of activity of the individual. The synthesisengine 702 can, for example, categorize the individual's activity as anentertainment context, an occupational context, or a privacy context. Anentertainment content can arise when the individual is at home watchinga football game with friends and family. An occupational context canarise, for example, when the individual is at the office, and is engagedin a conference call. A privacy context can arise when the individual isresting in bed or has proactively submitted a request to system 700 fora quiet moment. Other possible forms of contextual identification arecontemplated by the present disclosure.

The synthesis engine 702 can also historically track the context ofactivity of the individual, the location of the individual, and thestate of usage of communication and computing devices of the individual.Utilizing common statistical pattern recognition tools, the synthesisengine 702 can detect historical patterns that can indicate the habitsand customs of the individual. The synthesis engine 702 can for exampledetermine that upon arriving at home from a typical work day, theindividual turns on the TV to the ESPN channel. The synthesis engine 702can also identify from metadata that the individual is particularlyinterested in certain sports teams. Behavioral information such as thiscan be saved by the synthesis engine 702 in a behavioral profile.

The behavioral profile of the individual can describe the habits andcustoms of the individual during a work week and on weekends. Thecustoms and habits recorded in the profile can include for example whothe individual commonly communicates with, an identification of commonmedia content consumed by the individual, which communication andcomputing devices the individual uses at different times of the day,likes and dislikes of the individual, and so forth. The behavior profilecan be comprehensive in its descriptions of the individual. For example,the individual's behavior on a particular day can be described in timeintervals: a first interval starting from the time the individual wakesup, a second interval starting from the time the individual arrives athis/her office, a third interval starting from the time the individualreturns home from work, and a fourth interval starting at the time theindividual goes to sleep. Each of these intervals can be described intemporal units (every half hour, every hour, etc.).

The behavioral profile of the individual can also be refined withsubscriber account data. The subscriber account data of the individualcombined with a knowledge of the media consumption behavior of theindividual can provide the synthesis engine 702 sufficient informationto demographically and psychographically profile the individual. Thebehavioral profile can therefore identify demographic aspects of theindividual such as age group, gender, income level and education, andpsychographic aspects such as traits of the individual, likes anddislikes of the individual, attitudes of the individual, interests ofthe individual, and lifestyle of the individual.

The synthesis engine 702 can determine the measure of the mood of theindividual singly or in combination from the context of activity of theindividual, the location of individual, the state of usage ofcommunication and computing devices of the individual, and thebehavioral profile of the individual. The resulting measure can bedescribed in a plurality of dimensions. FIG. 8 depicts an illustrativeembodiment of the plurality of dimensions associated with the measure ofthe mood of the individual. Other embodiments of the illustration ofFIG. 8 are contemplated by the present disclosure.

The illustration in FIG. 8 is a planar representation of six possibledimensions for describing the mood of the individual: (1) a firstdimension to manage a metaphorical expression of the mood of theindividual to interact with an entity (MEn), (2) a second dimension tomanage a disclosure to the entity of one or more activities of theindividual (Dn), (3) a third dimension to manage a negotiation with theentity to provide the entity a degree of access to the individual (NSn),(4) a fourth dimension to manage an intermediary that conducts thenegotiation with the entity (IMn), (5) a fifth dimension to manage thefirst through fourth dimensions according to an identity of the entityrequesting to interact with the individual (IEn), and (6) a sixthdimension to manage the first through fourth dimensions according to acontext of activity of the individual at the time the entity requests aninteraction with the individual (CAn).

For illustration purposes only, the entity will be referred to herein asa party expressing an interest to interact with the individual. It isunderstood however that the party can be replaced with an artificialintelligence system without affecting the scope of the disclosure thatfollows.

The first dimension can be subdivided into elements, each identifying aplurality of metaphor expressions (ME1 through MEn) which can be used toexpress the mood of the individual to interact with a party. Theelements of the second dimension can identify a plurality of techniquesto disclose the activities of the individual (D1 through Dn) to theparty. The elements of the third dimension can identify a plurality ofnegotiation strategies (NS1 through NSn) to provide the party a degreeof access to the individual. The elements of the fourth dimension canidentify a plurality of intermediaries (IM1 through IMn) that can becalled on to negotiate with the party the degree of access to theindividual. The elements of the fifth and sixth dimensions can identifya plurality of parties (P1 through Pn) and context of activities of theindividual (CA1 through CAn) which the synthesis engine 702 can use tocreate a plurality of multidimensional scenarios depicted illustrativelyby references 802 and 804. These scenarios can be used by thenegotiation engine 706, the intermediary engine 708, and the metaphorengine 710 to perform their respective functions.

For illustration purposes, suppose that party P1 corresponds to Sam Doe(a friend of the individual). The scenario of reference 802 shows thatwhen the context of activity of the individual is CA2 and the requestingparty is Sam Doe (P1), the intermediary engine 708 is directed by thesynthesis engine 702 to select the intermediary IM2, the metaphor engine710 is to directed to select the metaphor expression ME1, thenegotiation engine 706 is to directed to select the negotiation strategyNS2, and the metaphor engine 710 is directed to select a disclosuretechnique D3.

The context of activity CA2 can represent an occupational context of theindividual such as when the individual is busy at work, on the phone, ordrafting documents on his/her computer. Intermediary IM2 can representthe selection of an interactive avatar presented to the party prior toproviding communication access to the individual. The metaphorexpression ME1 can represent a metaphor expression such as a partiallyopened door to indicate the availability and receptiveness of theindividual to interact with the party.

The disclosure D3 can identify an actual metaphor or synthesizedmetaphor that reveals in whole or in part the activities of theindividual. An actual metaphor can be represented by a visual or audiblepresentation of the activities of the individual supplied by data from aweb camera and/or audio sensor 712 collected by the collection engine704 which can be transmitted to the metaphor engine 710. A synthesizedmetaphor of the individual's activities on the other hand can berepresented by a virtual depiction of the individual's activities whichcan be presented to the party in a visual and/or audible format (e.g., apicture of an animated figure working from an office with a partiallyopened door, or the sound of a door opening partially with keyboardstrokes heard in the background).

The negotiation strategy NS2 can define a negotiation interaction withthe party. The negotiation interaction can be described by flowchartsgenerated by the synthesis engine 702 which outline queries directed tothe party and actions to be taken by the negotiation engine 706according to the party's responses to the queries. Negotiationinteractions can also be described by artificial intelligence algorithmscapable of addressing complex communication exchanges with the partywhich can address open-ended discussions that are not as straightforwardas a static flowchart.

Reference 804 illustrates another scenario identified by the synthesisengine 702 when the context of activity of the individual changes fromCA2 to CA4 for the same party (Sam Doe). The transition from reference802 to 804, results in a change of the intermediary from IM2 to IM1, achange of the metaphor expression from ME1 to ME3, a change of thenegotiation strategy from NS2 to NS3, and a change of the disclosuretechnique from D3 to D1. Many other scenarios (which are not shown) canbe generated by the synthesis engine 702 for the multidimensional chartof FIG. 8. Each of these scenarios can be communicated in whole or inpart to the negotiation engine 706, the intermediary engine 708 and themetaphor engine 710 as a multidimensional description of the mood of theindividual at any particular time and day of the week. The synthesisengine 710 can also communicate more than once a day updates in themultidimensional description of the mood of the individual to thenegotiation engine 706, the intermediary engine 708 and the metaphorengine 710.

Once a measure of the mood of the individual has been determined in step506, the synthesis engine 702 can present in step 508 the results to theindividual on a communication device of the individual such as his/hercomputer. The presentation can be a graphical representation 800 such asshown in FIG. 8. To manage the presentation, the synthesis engine 702can be directed by the individual to present one scenario at a time on aper party basis. When there are too many scenarios to review, theindividual can focus his/her attention on a few parties of interest(such as family, management, executive staff). During the presentationof a particular scenario, the individual can qualitatively adjust eachscenario by selecting a portion of a reference line with a navigationdevice such as a mouse, and moving it between elements for any of thedimensions shown in FIG. 8.

For example, in the case of reference 802, the individual can move theline intersection from intermediary IM2 to intermediary IM3, anddisclosure D3 to disclosure D1, while retaining the previousintersections at the metaphorical expression ME1 and negotiationstrategy NS2. Alternatively, the individual can submit quantitativechanges to the displayed scenario by way of a keyboard entry (“ChangeIM2 to IM3, and D3 to D1”).

It will be appreciated by an artisan with ordinary skill in the art thatother methods can be used by the individual for qualitatively orquantitatively updating the scenarios presented by the synthesis engine702. For instance, the synthesis engine 702 can use common graphicaltools such as “sliders” or “knobs” to provide the individual a means tomake updates. Each dimension shown in FIG. 8 can be presented with acorresponding slider or knob that the individual can use to changebetween elements of a proposed scenario.

The individual can also be presented with an additional slider or knobthat represents a collective measure of multiple dimensions. The slideror knob in this instance can signify discrete levels or a continuousrange of a receptiveness of the individual to interact with others orwith a particular party. Moving the slider to the left or turning theknob counterclockwise can represent a decrease in the receptiveness ofthe individual to interact, while moving the slider to the right or theknob clockwise can represent an increase in the receptiveness tointeract. The synthesis engine 702 can present the slider or knob in aposition that corresponds to the scenario originally determined by thesynthesis engine 710. A departure from this position can change theintersections shown in FIG. 8 for a particular scenario (or multiplescenarios). The synthesis engine 702 can graphically show the adaptationof a scenario (or scenarios) as the individual moves the slider or knob.

In addition to the chart of FIG. 8, the synthesis engine 702 can alsoprovide statistical data for each scenario as well as for a collectionof scenarios. The statistical data can be presented graphically such asby way of a probability distribution (Gaussian, Poisson) with standarddeviation, variance, and confidence metrics. For individuals who haveless technical expertise, the synthesis engine 702 can apply colorcoding techniques to a statistical graph to indicate moodinterpretations of the individual. For example, the color green canrepresent a receptive mood of the individual to interact with otherswhile red represents an unreceptive mood. The colors can be defined by alegend. Sliders and knobs can be presented with these representations sothat the individual can also adjust statistical predictions of the moodof the individual on a scenario basis, or across a collection ofscenarios.

The qualitative or quantitative changes made by the individual asdescribed above to the measure of the mood of the individual can bedetected by the synthesis engine 702 in step 510 and updated in step512.

In step 514, the synthesis engine 702 can distribute in whole or in partthe updated multidimensional measure of the mood of the individual tothe negotiation engine 706, the intermediary engine 708 and the metaphorengine 710. The multidimensional measure can be distributed as digitalcodes each representing scenarios synthesized by the synthesis engine702. In step 516, the negotiation engine 706 and the metaphor engine 710can monitor parties expressing an interest in interacting with theindividual.

Step 516 can be accomplished by the negotiation engine 706 and/or themetaphor engine 710 detecting communication origination signalsinitiated by communication or computing devices of a party (such as themedia processor 106 or CDs 108, 116, 201, or 203), each of these devicesof the party communicatively coupled to communication systems 100 and200. A communication original signal can arise from a PSTN call causingthe generation of SS7 signaling information, a VoIP call causing thegeneration of a SIP INVITE, or an instant messaging request arising froman IM application operating from a computer of the party. Thecommunication origination signals can be directed by network elements ofcommunication systems 100 and 200 to the negotiation engine 706 and themetaphor engine 710 before it reaches a CD of the individual such as CD202. The network elements can await instructions from the negotiationengine 706 which determines the degree of access provided to theindividual.

In another embodiment, step 516 can represent an intermediatecommunication attempt by a party. For example, a party exploring thepossibility of interacting with the individual can submit from acommunication device of the party a request to communicate with themetaphor engine 710 (or the communication with the metaphor engine 710can be continuous) in step 516 to determine from a metaphor expressionof the individual's activities whether interaction with the individualis desirable. If the party determines that an interaction is desirable,the party can cause the communication device of the party (such as acomputer, STB, cellular phone, etc.) to initiate a communicationorigination request to a communication device of the individual (e.g.,office phone). If the party determines that interacting with theindividual is not desirable, the party can terminate communications withthe metaphor engine 710 without invoking a communication originationrequest.

In step 518 the metaphor engine 710 can generate a metaphor thatexpresses the mood of the individual. To perform this function, themetaphor engine 710 can determine a metaphor type from the measure ofthe mood and the party's identification (ID) which can be determined bycommon signaling techniques. The metaphor type can be, for example, asynthesized metaphor, an actual metaphor, or a combination thereof.

If the metaphor type is a synthesized metaphor, the metaphor engine 710can generate a synthesized audible metaphor according to the measure ofthe mood. A synthesized audible metaphor can represent synthesized audiogenerated from a metaphorical interpretation of the measure of the moodof the individual. The measure of the mood can indicate, for example, acontext of activity such as the individual is at the office working fromhis/her computer. The context of activity can be used to generatesynthesized audio in the form of someone typing on a keyboard to expressa synthesized audible metaphor. If the context of activity indicates theindividual is resting, or sleeping, the synthesized audible metaphor canbe represented by synthesized audio in the form of someone lightlysnoring.

The metaphor engine 710 can also generate a synthesized image metaphoraccording to the measure of the mood of individual. The metaphor engine710 can, for example, use the context of activity of the individual(CAn), and the metaphorical expression (MEn) to generate a synthesizedimage metaphor to suitably represent the mood of the individual. Forexample, suppose the context of activity identified by the measure ofthe mood of the individual indicates the individual is playing a videogame by way of a gaming console. To illustrate this activity, themetaphor engine 710 can generate a synthesized image metaphor such asshown in FIG. 10. The synthesized image metaphor can be a still ormoving image. In this illustration, the synthesized audible metaphor canrepresent sounds typically heard with video games.

Suppose instead the context of activity indicates the individual isentertaining a guest while viewing a football game. To illustrate thisactivity, the metaphor engine 710 can generate a synthesized imagemetaphor such as the one shown in FIG. 11. As before, the synthesizedimage metaphor can be a still or moving image. The synthesized audiblemetaphor can generate sounds typically heard during a football game. Inyet another illustrative embodiment, suppose the context of activityindicates the individual is resting. To illustrate this activity, themetaphor engine 710 can generate a synthesized image metaphor such asshown in FIG. 12 with a synthesized audible metaphor of someone lightlysnoring.

When the metaphor type is an actual metaphor, the metaphor engine 710can be programmed to receive audio and/or image information in avicinity of the individual. A microphone of a communication device suchas a landline phone, mobile phone, computer, or web camera located inthe vicinity of the individual can receive ambient sound and generatewith a common audio circuit the audio information. The metaphor engine710 can selectively enable the communication device of the individual tomonitor audio information with or without notifying the individual.Similarly, the metaphor engine 710 can direct the same or anothercommunication device in the vicinity of the individual with imagesensing capability (such as a web camera) to intercept and transmitimages to the metaphor engine 710—again with or without notifying theindividual. The images can be still or moving images showing theindividual and/or his or her surroundings. The audio and imageinformation collected by the metaphor engine 710 collectively becomeaudible and image metaphors.

The metaphor engine 710 can also determine if nested metaphors will beused. If so, nested metaphors can be created by the metaphor engine 710.FIGS. 13-18 illustrate nested metaphors in a private setting, whileFIGS. 19-23 illustrate nested metaphors in a work setting. FIG. 13 forinstance can be a first metaphor which a party requesting to interactwith the individual can be presented. This metaphor can be used when theidentification of the party is not recognized, or is not considered aclose relationship of the individual. The position of the gate (down,half-way, and up) can indicate to the party the receptiveness of theindividual to communicate with the party.

The first metaphor can also be accompanied by an intermediary, in thisillustration a guard, which can communicate with the party as directedby the intermediary engine 708 and the negotiation engine 706 todetermine if the party will be allowed to pass the gate into themetaphorical housing subdivision of the individual. Once the party isallowed to enter the subdivision metaphor, the gate position of theindividual's residence can be presented according to one of theillustrations shown in FIGS. 14-16, or a residence that lacks a gate asshown in FIG. 17.

The gate positions and the lack of a gate can also indicate areceptiveness of the individual to interact with the party. Theembodiment of FIG. 14 with a closed gate can be configured to requirethe party to engage a speakerphone located at the left column of thegate to request entry to the residence. The speakerphone can serve as anintermediary managed by the negotiation engine 706. The party can alsobe presented with another intermediary (e.g., a butler) at the frontdoor, such as shown in FIG. 18, to greet the party as directed by theintermediary engine 708 and the negotiation engine 706 and to determineif the party will be allowed to enter the individual's home.

In a work setting, the party can be greeted by a receptionist metaphoras shown in FIG. 19. The receptionist metaphor can also be controlled bythe intermediary engine 708 and negotiation engine 706 to determinewhether the party will be allowed to proceed to, for example, theindividual's administrative assistant such as shown in FIG. 20. Theadministrative assistant can also interact with the party as directed bythe intermediary engine 708 and negotiation engine 706. The party canalso visualize the receptiveness of the individual to interact with theparty according to the position of the shades and door of theindividual's office.

For example, FIG. 21 depicts a situation where the individual has aclosed door, and closed shades. The party can interpret from thismetaphor that the individual may not want to be disturbed. FIG. 22illustrates a partially opened door and shade, which may indicate theindividual is busy but can be disturbed by the party if the need forinteracting is important. FIG. 23 depicts a situation where the shadesand the door are in a fully opened position. Additionally, the metaphorshows that the individual is using his computer. This metaphor canindicate that the individual is also busy, but is less resistive tointeracting with the party than the metaphor presented in FIG. 22.

The concept of nested metaphors can be extended also to a single imagemetaphor. For example, disclosing what's behind an office window or doorcan represent a nested metaphor. The door or the window can be afirst-level metaphor, while the disclosure behind the window or door canrepresent a second-level metaphor. It would be appreciated by one ofordinary skill in the art that there are innumerable ways to presentimage metaphors to describe the measure of the mood of the individualthat have not been presented in the present disclosure for practicalreasons.

For instance, the shades shown in FIGS. 21-23 can be removed, andreplaced with a variable opacity of the window to vary the exposure ofthe individual's activities. The less receptive the individual is tointeract with the party, the more opaque the window can be, andvice-versa. Also, when transitioning between nested metaphors, animationcan be used to indicate to the party that the some level of progress toreach the individual is being made (e.g., the guard in FIG. 13 doessomething to raise the gate, the gates in FIG. 14 slowly open, etc.).Other possible embodiments of an image metaphor that can be used toconvey the individual's willingness or receptiveness to interact with aparty are contemplated by the present disclosure.

Once the metaphor has been created and presented to the party in step518, the negotiation engine 706 in step 520 can determine a negotiationstrategy according to the negotiation strategy (NSn) of FIG. 8 inrelation to the scenario associated with the party requesting tointeract with the individual. In step 522, the negotiation engine 706can determine from the negotiation strategy whether negotiations arenecessary. The negotiation strategy can for example indicate that basedon the identity of the party negotiations are not required (e.g., nonegotiations when spouse or boss calls). Accordingly, the party caninitiate interactions with the individual in step 536 withoutintermediate negotiations.

If negotiations are required and the party persists in requesting aninteraction with the individual, the negotiation engine 706 can proceedto step 524 where it invokes an intermediary to interact with the partysuch as shown in FIGS. 13, and 18-20. Persistence can be detected whenthe party invokes a communication origination request over the IMSnetwork 250. If persistence is not detected such as a result of theparty terminating communications with the metaphor engine 710, thenegotiation engine 706 can conclude monitoring the party's actions.

If persistence is detected, the intermediary engine 708 can be directedin step 524 by the negotiation engine 706 to invoke an intermediary. Theintermediary generated by the intermediary engine 708 in step 524 can bedescribed by an illustrative embodiment of a method 600 depicted in FIG.6 for directing the operations of a communication system 900 of FIG. 9.

FIG. 9 depicts an interactive media communication system (iMCS) 901which can represent the communication systems of FIGS. 1-2 singly orcollectively. The iMCS 901 can be coupled to the portal 302 (previouslydescribed in FIG. 3), an avatar engine 903, and one or more STBs 906.Common computer animation technology can enable the real-time synthesisof animated avatar images such as the avatar image 908 and the avatarimages in FIGS. 13, 18-20, or faces that look like actual people such asthe avatar image 909. Common speech recognition, natural languageinterpretation and speech synthesis technology can be used to synthesizeconversational interfaces. Collectively, these technologies can be usedby the avatar engine 130 to produce human-like or animated interactiveavatars. The avatar engine 903 can be operably coupled to or an integralpart of the intermediary engine 708 of FIG. 7 to invoke synthesizedintermediaries such as avatars with animated or human-like appearance.The intermediary engine 708 can also direct human agents to act asintermediaries as will be described by method 600.

The STBs 906 can be operatively coupled to media presentation devicessuch as a high-definition television (HDTV) 910 which can present avatarimages 908 supplied by the avatar engine 903 by way of the STBs 906. Auser 902 of the STB 906 can interact with the avatar image 908 by speechas well as tactile controls using a remote control 904. The HDTV 910 canhave a common camera sensor 912 for capturing still and/or moving imagesof the user 902, which can be displayed in part by the HDTV as apicture-in-picture (PIP) image 914. The visual images of the user can beconveyed to the STB 906. Speech can be detected by a microphone of anaudio system of the remote control 904 or an audio system of the STB906. The STB 906 can transmit to the avatar engine 903 the visual imagesas well as speech signals of the user 902 for analysis.

The avatar engine 903 can also be communicatively coupled to a mobilephone 905 with a camera 907 that can convey still or moving images ofthe user 902 to the avatar engine 903. The mobile phone 905 can have anaudio system for receiving responses of the user 902 and for conveyingthe user's speech to the avatar engine 903. The audio system can alsohave a loudspeaker to convey to the user 902 synthesized speech of theavatar 908 for hands-free operations. To avoid disturbing others, themobile phone 905 can also incorporate common Bluetooth wirelesstransceiver technology to communicate with a common Bluetooth headset911 worn by the user 902. Similarly, the avatar engine 903 can becommunicatively coupled to a computer 913 with similar resources as themobile phone 905.

With communication system 900 in mind, the intermediary engine 708 canapply method 600 for purposes of invoking in step 524 an intermediary asdirected by the negotiation engine 706 in step 522. Method 600 can beginwith step 602 in which the intermediary engine 708 determines from themeasure of the mood and entity ID an intermediary type. The entity IDcan be a caller ID derived from the communication session initiated bythe entity (party). The intermediary type can be determined from theintermediary dimension (IMn), which can identify the need for asynthesized intermediary or human intermediary in step 604. Asynthesized intermediary can represent human-like or animatedinteractive avatar as described in FIG. 9. The intermediary dimension(IMn) can be used by the intermediary engine 708 to select in step 606 asynthesized intermediary in the form of for example an interactiveavatar.

In step 608, the intermediary engine 708 can direct the avatar engine903 to generate as described earlier a synthesized intermediary in theform of an interactive avatar according to the selected intermediary.The interactive avatar generated by the avatar engine 903 can then becombined with the metaphor generated by the metaphor engine 710 andpresented at a communication device (e.g., computer, TV, mobile phone,etc.) of the individual in step 616. The combined avatar and metaphorcan be represented by for example one of FIGS. 13, 18-20. In step 618,the individual can be provided options to accept the interactive avatarand metaphor in its present condition, or perform adjustments. Theindividual can provide system 700 directives in the form of adjustmentsby selecting drop down menus to change the interactive avatar, changethe metaphor or both. The individual can also be presented withqualitative means for adjusting the interactive avatar and metaphor. Inan embodiment, the interactive avatar can be adapted by selecting from amenu a variety of facial, body or dress features presented at thecommunication device of the individual. The metaphor can be adapted bysimilar means.

If the individual chooses to accept the interactive avatar and metaphoras presented, the intermediary engine 708 can proceed to step 622.Otherwise, the intermediary engine 708 can proceed to step 620 where itadapts the intermediary and/or metaphor as directed by the individual.The intermediary engine 708 can return to step 616 where it presents theadapted intermediary and/or metaphor at the communication device of theindividual and thereby provides the individual an opportunity to acceptor make additional modifications in steps 618-620.

Referring back to step 604, if instead the intermediary type is a humanagent, the intermediary engine 708 can proceed to step 610 where itselects a human agent from a list of possible agents to act as anintermediary on behalf of the individual. In a work setting, theintermediary dimension (IMn) can identify a live receptionist orsecretary of the individual. In personal setting, the intermediary canbe a live butler. In step 612, the intermediary engine 708 can presentthe communication device of the individual an identification of thehuman agent selected (secretary, receptionist, butler, etc.) and theselected metaphor. In step 614, the individual can decide to chooseanother human intermediary (e.g., switch from receptionist tosecretary), and/or make adjustments to the metaphor as discussed earlierin step 620 until the individual has achieved a desirable outcome.

In step 622, the intermediary engine 708 can also check whether nestedmetaphors are to be used. If nested metaphors are being used, theintermediary engine 708 in step 624 identifies the intermediaries, ifany, that should be associated with each nested metaphor. For example,in the nested metaphors of FIGS. 13-18, only FIGS. 13 and 18 requireintermediaries (guard and butler). In the nested metaphors of FIGS.19-23, only FIGS. 19-20 require intermediaries (receptionist andadministrative assistant). In step 626, the intermediary engine 708 andmetaphor engine 710 present the entity the combined intermediary andmetaphor. Collectively, the foregoing steps can be a representativeembodiment of step 524 of FIG. 5. It should be noted that steps 518-524and method 600 can occur in a rapid sequence such that it appears to theparty requesting to communicate with the individual that theintermediary is presented contemporaneously with the metaphor image.

In step 526, the intermediary engine 708 can receive instructions fromthe negotiation engine 706 for directing negotiations between theintermediary (avatar such as butler or human agent such as receptionist)and the party requesting to interact with the individual. The responsesof the party can be recorded by the intermediary by common means (e.g.,speech recognition, or text messaging by a human agent), which can beconveyed by the intermediary engine 708 to the negotiation engine 706 instep 528.

In step 532, the network element directs the metaphor engine and theintermediary engine to the next metaphor and adapted intermediary ifprogress is made. In step 530, the negotiation engine 706 can determineif the metaphor engine 710 has provided nested metaphors. If so, thenegotiation engine 706 can direct the metaphor engine 710 to proceed tothe next metaphor if progress is made in the negotiations as determinedby the negotiation engine 706 by the responses received in step 528.When transitioning between nested metaphors, the intermediary engine 708can adapt or change intermediaries consistent with the nestedintermediaries identified in step 624 of FIG. 6.

The negotiation engine 706 can also determine at step 534 whether toprovide the party access to the individual at step 536, continuenegotiations at steps 526-528 by way of the intermediary, or terminatecommunications with the party. If the negotiation engine 706 decides totransition from step 534 to step 536, the degree of access provided tothe party may be partial or unlimited.

Suppose for instance, the individual is in the midst of watching afootball game. The synthesis engine 702 can determine from thebehavioral profile that the individual does not like to engage in voicecommunications during this time, but has accepted on prior occasions toengage in instant messaging communications. The behavioral profile canalso indicate that the individual will accept voice communicationsduring a football game when the requesting party is a close friend orfamily and the request is urgent. With this understanding, thenegotiation engine 706 can determine in step 534 that providing theparty instant messaging access to the individual would be acceptable tothe individual, while voice communication would be undesirable if theparty did not indicate in the communication exchange with theintermediary that the call was urgent.

Upon reviewing the aforementioned embodiments, it would be evident to anartisan with ordinary skill in the art that said embodiments can bemodified, reduced, or enhanced without departing from the scope andspirit of the claims described below. Accordingly, the reader isdirected to the claims section for a fuller understanding of the breadthand scope of the present disclosure.

FIG. 24 depicts an exemplary diagrammatic representation of a machine inthe form of a computer system 2400 within which a set of instructions,when executed, may cause the machine to perform any one or more of themethodologies discussed above. The computer system 2400 in whole or inpart can be a representative embodiment of the synthesis engine 702, thecollection engine 704, the negotiation engine 606, the intermediaryengine 708, and the metaphor engine 710. It is also contemplated thatthe computer system 2400 in whole or in part can also be arepresentative embodiment of other devices described in the presentdisclosure such as the devices illustrated in FIGS. 1-4. In someembodiments, the machine operates as a standalone device. In someembodiments, the machine may be connected (e.g., using a network) toother machines. In a networked deployment, the machine may operate inthe capacity of a server or a client user machine in server-client usernetwork environment, or as a peer machine in a peer-to-peer (ordistributed) network environment.

The machine may comprise a server computer, a client user computer, apersonal computer (PC), a tablet PC, a laptop computer, a desktopcomputer, a control system, a network router, switch or bridge, or anymachine capable of executing a set of instructions (sequential orotherwise) that specify actions to be taken by that machine. It will beunderstood that a device of the present disclosure includes broadly anyelectronic device that provides voice, video or data communication.Further, while a single machine is illustrated, the term “machine” shallalso be taken to include any collection of machines that individually orjointly execute a set (or multiple sets) of instructions to perform anyone or more of the methodologies discussed herein.

The computer system 2400 may include a processor 2402 (e.g., a centralprocessing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU, or both)), amain memory 2404 and a static memory 2406, which communicate with eachother via a bus 2408. The computer system 2400 may further include avideo display unit 2410 (e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD), a flatpanel, a solid state display, or a cathode ray tube (CRT)). The computersystem 2400 may include an input device 2412 (e.g., a keyboard), acursor control device 2414 (e.g., a mouse), a disk drive unit 2416, asignal generation device 2418 (e.g., a speaker or remote control) and anetwork interface device 2420.

The disk drive unit 2416 may include a machine-readable medium 2422 onwhich is stored one or more sets of instructions (e.g., software 2424)embodying any one or more of the methodologies or functions describedherein, including those methods illustrated above. The instructions 2424may also reside, completely or at least partially, within the mainmemory 2404, the static memory 2406, and/or within the processor 2402during execution thereof by the computer system 2400. The main memory2404 and the processor 2402 also may constitute machine-readable media.

Dedicated hardware implementations including, but not limited to,application specific integrated circuits, programmable logic arrays andother hardware devices can likewise be constructed to implement themethods described herein. Applications that may include the apparatusand systems of various embodiments broadly include a variety ofelectronic and computer systems. Some embodiments implement functions intwo or more specific interconnected hardware modules or devices withrelated control and data signals communicated between and through themodules, or as portions of an application-specific integrated circuit.Thus, the example system is applicable to software, firmware, andhardware implementations.

In accordance with various embodiments of the present disclosure, themethods described herein are intended for operation as software programsrunning on a computer processor. Furthermore, software implementationscan include, but not limited to, distributed processing orcomponent/object distributed processing, parallel processing, or virtualmachine processing can also be constructed to implement the methodsdescribed herein.

The present disclosure contemplates a machine readable medium containinginstructions 2424, or that which receives and executes instructions 2424from a propagated signal so that a device connected to a networkenvironment 2426 can send or receive voice, video or data, and tocommunicate over the network 2426 using the instructions 2424. Theinstructions 2424 may further be transmitted or received over a network2426 via the network interface device 2420.

While the machine-readable medium 2422 is shown in an example embodimentto be a single medium, the term “machine-readable medium” should betaken to include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralizedor distributed database, and/or associated caches and servers) thatstore the one or more sets of instructions. The term “machine-readablemedium” shall also be taken to include any medium that is capable ofstoring, encoding or carrying a set of instructions for execution by themachine and that cause the machine to perform any one or more of themethodologies of the present disclosure.

The term “machine-readable medium” shall accordingly be taken toinclude, but not be limited to: solid-state memories such as a memorycard or other package that houses one or more read-only (non-volatile)memories, random access memories, or other re-writable (volatile)memories; magneto-optical or optical medium such as a disk or tape; andcarrier wave signals such as a signal embodying computer instructions ina transmission medium; and/or a digital file attachment to e-mail orother self-contained information archive or set of archives isconsidered a distribution medium equivalent to a tangible storagemedium. Accordingly, the disclosure is considered to include any one ormore of a machine-readable medium or a distribution medium, as listedherein and including art-recognized equivalents and successor media, inwhich the software implementations herein are stored.

Although the present specification describes components and functionsimplemented in the embodiments with reference to particular standardsand protocols, the disclosure is not limited to such standards andprotocols. Each of the standards for Internet and other packet switchednetwork transmission (e.g., TCP/IP, UDP/IP, HTML, HTTP) representexamples of the state of the art. Such standards are periodicallysuperseded by faster or more efficient equivalents having essentiallythe same functions. Accordingly, replacement standards and protocolshaving the same functions are considered equivalents.

The illustrations of embodiments described herein are intended toprovide a general understanding of the structure of various embodiments,and they are not intended to serve as a complete description of all theelements and features of apparatus and systems that might make use ofthe structures described herein. Many other embodiments will be apparentto those of skill in the art upon reviewing the above description. Otherembodiments may be utilized and derived therefrom, such that structuraland logical substitutions and changes may be made without departing fromthe scope of this disclosure. Figures are also merely representationaland may not be drawn to scale. Certain proportions thereof may beexaggerated, while others may be minimized. Accordingly, thespecification and drawings are to be regarded in an illustrative ratherthan a restrictive sense.

Such embodiments of the inventive subject matter may be referred toherein, individually and/or collectively, by the term “invention” merelyfor convenience and without intending to voluntarily limit the scope ofthis application to any single invention or inventive concept if morethan one is in fact disclosed. Thus, although specific embodiments havebeen illustrated and described herein, it should be appreciated that anyarrangement calculated to achieve the same purpose may be substitutedfor the specific embodiments shown. This disclosure is intended to coverany and all adaptations or variations of various embodiments.Combinations of the above embodiments, and other embodiments notspecifically described herein, will be apparent to those of skill in theart upon reviewing the above description.

The Abstract of the Disclosure is provided to comply with 37 C.F.R.§1.72(b), requiring an abstract that will allow the reader to quicklyascertain the nature of the technical disclosure. It is submitted withthe understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit thescope or meaning of the claims. In addition, in the foregoing DetailedDescription, it can be seen that various features are grouped togetherin a single embodiment for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure.This method of disclosure is not to be interpreted as reflecting anintention that the claimed embodiments require more features than areexpressly recited in each claim. Rather, as the following claimsreflect, inventive subject matter lies in less than all features of asingle disclosed embodiment. Thus the following claims are herebyincorporated into the Detailed Description, with each claim standing onits own as a separately claimed subject matter.

What is claimed is:
 1. An intermediary engine, comprising: a hardwareprocessor; and a non-transitory storage device for storing instructionsto be executed by the hardware processor; wherein the instructions, whenexecuted by the hardware processor, cause the hardware processor toperform operations comprising: receiving a measure of a mood of anindividual, wherein the measure of the mood is synthesized from changesthat are identified in collected information associated with a behaviorof the individual, wherein the collected information includes one ofmedia content consumed by the individual, images of the individualcaptured by a group of cameras at a plurality of locations, audiorecordings of the individual captured by a plurality of end user devicesor a combination thereof, wherein the mood indicates an availability ofthe individual and a receptiveness of the individual to accept a requestto interact with an entity, wherein the measure of the mood includes agroup of dimensions comprising a first dimension identifying a pluralityof metaphor expressions to express the mood of the individual tointeract with the entity, a second dimension identifying a plurality oftechniques to disclose activities of the individual to the entity, and athird dimension identifying a group of strategies to provide the entitya degree of access to the individual; selecting an interactive avatarhaving characteristics determined from the measure of the mood of theindividual; presenting the interactive avatar; and managing interactionsbetween the individual, the interactive avatar and the entity accordingto a selected strategy that is selected from among the group ofstrategies according to the measure of the mood of the individual,wherein the group of strategies is pre-determined and stored, whereinthe managing of the interactions includes generating queries forpresentation via the interactive avatar and performing actions by theinteractive avatar responsive to user input responding to the queries,wherein the queries and the actions are selected from pre-determinedqueries and pre-determined actions identified by the selected strategy,wherein weighting factors are applied to the collected information forsynthesizing of the changes, wherein the images of the individualcaptured by the group of cameras at the plurality of locations areutilized for determining activities of the individual and environmentsof the individual, and wherein the group of dimensions of the measure ofthe mood includes a fourth dimension identifying a plurality ofintermediaries to negotiate with the entity the degree of access to theindividual, and a fifth dimension identifying a plurality of parties andcontext of activities of the individual to create a plurality ofmultidimensional scenarios.
 2. The intermediary engine of claim 1,wherein the selected strategy is selected by a strategy engine, andwherein the selected strategy comprises a flowchart of thepre-determined queries and the pre-determined actions.
 3. Theintermediary engine of claim 1, wherein the hardware processor whenexecuting the instructions performs operations comprising: selecting ahuman agent according to the measure of the mood of the individual; andproviding communications between the entity and the human agent.
 4. Theintermediary engine of claim 3, wherein the hardware processor whenexecuting the instructions performs operations comprising directinginteractions between the human agent and the entity according toinstructions received from a strategy engine.
 5. The intermediary engineof claim 1, wherein the audio recordings of the individual captured fromthe plurality of end user devices are utilized for the determining ofthe activities of the individual and environments of the individual. 6.The intermediary engine of claim 5, comprising an interactive voiceresponse system that interacts with the entity according to an audiblespeech exchange.
 7. The intermediary engine of claim 1, wherein theinteractive avatar is presented in combination with a metaphor createdby a metaphor engine according to the measure of the mood of theindividual to obtain a combined metaphor, and wherein the interactiveavatar is presented based on a predicted behavior for the individual,wherein the predicted behavior is determined from monitoring of theactivities of the individual and environments of the individual and isdetermined according to a current location of the individual.
 8. Theintermediary engine of claim 7, wherein the metaphor corresponds to afirst nested metaphor of a plurality of nested metaphors.
 9. Theintermediary engine of claim 8, wherein the operations further comprise:receiving from a strategy engine a directive to change the interactiveavatar responsive to the metaphor engine switching to a second nestedmetphor the plurality of nested metaphors; and presenting a newintermediary in combination with the second nested metaphor of theplurality of nested metaphors.
 10. The intermediary engine of claim 9,wherein the new intermediary comprises another interactive avatar. 11.The intermediary engine of claim 7, wherein the operations furthercomprise selecting the interactive avatar from a plurality of selectableinteractive avatars according to a context of the metaphor.
 12. Theintermediary engine of claim 11, wherein the context of the metaphorcomprises an occupational context.
 13. The intermediary engine of claim7, wherein the operations further comprise: presenting the combinedmetaphor and interactive avatar at a communication device of theindividual; receiving from the communication device a directive tomodify at least a portion of the combined metaphor and interactiveavatar to generate an updated combined metaphor and interactive avatar;and presenting the updated combined metaphor and interactive avatar tothe entity requesting to interact with the individual.
 14. Theintermediary engine of claim 1, wherein the operations further compriseinvoking and presenting the interactive avatar responsive to a strategyengine directing the intermediary engine to invoke the interactiveavatar and the measure of the mood of the individual being less thanreceptive to interact with the entity.
 15. The intermediary engine ofclaim 1, wherein the hardware processor is in communication with aninteractive television communication system for presentation of aninteractive avatar.
 16. The intermediary engine of claim 15, wherein theinteractive television communication system comprises an internetprotocol television communication system.
 17. A non-transitorymachine-readable storage device, comprising executable instructions,which when executed by a processor cause the processor to performoperations comprising: receiving a measure of a mood of an individual tointeract with an entity, wherein the measure of the mood is synthesizedfrom identified changes in collected information associated with abehavior of the individual, wherein the measure indicates areceptiveness of the individual to accept a request from the entity tointeract with the individual, wherein the collected information includesone of images of the individual captured by a group of cameras at aplurality of locations, audio recordings of the individual captured froma plurality of end user devices, or a combination thereof, wherein themeasure of the mood includes a group of dimensions comprising a firstdimension identifying a plurality of metaphor expressions to express themood of the individual to interact with the entity, a second dimensionidentifying a plurality of techniques to disclose activities of theindividual to the entity, and a third dimension identifying a group ofstrategies to provide the entity a degree of access to the individual;invoking an intermediary according to the measure of the mood of theindividual; and managing interactions between the individual and theentity via the intermediary according to a selected strategy that isselected from among the group of strategies according to the measure ofthe mood of the individual, wherein the group of strategies ispre-determined and stored, wherein the managing of the interactionsincludes generating queries and performing actions responsive to userinput responding to the queries according to a flow chart of theselected strategy, wherein the intermediary presented to the entityinteracts with the entity by way of an audible speech exchange and animage exchange, wherein the collected information includes a frequencyof use of media resources by the individual, subscriber serviceinformation from a subscriber account of the individual, and locationdata associated with the individual, and wherein the group of dimensionsof the measure of the mood includes a fourth dimension identifying aplurality of intermediaries to negotiate with the entity the degree ofaccess to the individual, and a fifth dimension identifying a pluralityof parties and context of activities of the individual to create aplurality of multidimensional scenarios.
 18. The non-transitorymachine-readable storage device of claim 17, wherein the intermediarycomprises an interactive avatar, wherein the operations further comprisepresenting the interactive avatar to the entity requesting to interactwith the individual, wherein the collected information includes mediacontent consumed by the individual, wherein the images of the individualcaptured by the group of cameras at the plurality of locations areutilized for determining activities of the individual and environmentsof the individual, wherein the measure of the mood is synthesized fromthe identified changes without synthesizing all of the collectedinformation, and wherein the queries are presented via the interactiveavatar.
 19. The non-transitory machine-readable storage device of claim17, wherein the intermediary is a human agent, and wherein the storagedevice comprises computer instructions which when executed by theprocessor cause the processor to perform operations comprising directinginteractions between the human agent and the entity according toinstructions received from a strategy engine, wherein the audiorecordings of the individual captured from the plurality of end userdevices are utilized for determining activities of the individual andenvironments of the individual.
 20. The non-transitory machine-readablestorage device of claim 17, wherein weighting factors are applied to thecollected information for synthesizing of the identified changes,wherein the intermediary is an interactive avatar, and wherein theoperations further comprise directing interactions between theinteractive avatar and the entity according to instructions receivedfrom a strategy engine.
 21. The non-transitory machine-readable storagedevice of claim 17, wherein the operations further comprise presentingthe intermediary in combination with a metaphor to obtain a combinedmetaphor.
 22. The non-transitory machine-readable storage device ofclaim 21 wherein the operations further comprise: receiving, from astrategy engine, a directive to adapt the intermediary responsive to atransition to another metaphor to generate an adapted intermediary; andpresenting the adapted intermediary.
 23. The non-transitorymachine-readable storage device of claim 21, wherein the operationsfurther comprise selecting the intermediary from a plurality ofselectable intermediaries according to a context of the metaphor,wherein the context of the metaphor comprises an occupational context,and wherein the metaphor comprises an image metaphor.
 24. Thenon-transitory machine-readable storage device of claim 21, wherein theoperations further comprise: presenting the combined metaphor andintermediary at a communication device of the individual; receiving fromthe communication device a directive to modify at least a portion of thecombined metaphor and intermediary to obtain an updated combinedmetaphor and intermediary; and presenting the updated combined metaphorand intermediary to the entity requesting to interact with theindividual.
 25. An avatar engine, comprising: a hardware processor; anda non-transitory storage device for storing instructions to be executedby the hardware processor; wherein the instructions, when executed bythe hardware processor, cause the hardware processor to performoperations comprising: identifying an avatar according to a measure of amood of an individual to interact with an entity, wherein the measure ofthe mood is received from a synthesis engine that synthesizes identifiedchanges in collected information associated with a behavior of theindividual, wherein weighting factors are applied to the collectedinformation for synthesizing of the identified changes, wherein themeasure of the mood indicates a receptiveness of the individual toaccept a request from the entity to interact with the individual, andwherein the collected information includes images of the individualcaptured by a group of cameras at a plurality of locations that areutilized for determining activities of the individual and environmentsof the individual, wherein the measure of the mood includes a group ofdimensions comprising a first dimension identifying a plurality ofmetaphor expressions to express the mood of the individual to interactwith the entity, a second dimension identifying a plurality oftechniques to disclose activities of the individual to the entity, and athird dimension identifying a group of strategies to provide the entitya degree of access to the individual; accessing a selected strategy thatis selected from among the group of strategies according to the measureof the mood of the individual, wherein the group of strategies ispre-determined and stored; and presenting queries via the avataraccording to a flowchart of the selected strategy, wherein the flowchartidentifies a series of pre-determined queries responsive to user input,wherein a communication exchange comprises a combined image and audiblespeech exchange, wherein the collected information includes mediacontent consumed by the individual and audio recordings of theindividual, and wherein the group of dimensions of the measure of themood includes a fourth dimension identifying a plurality ofintermediaries to negotiate with the entity the degree of access to theindividual, and a fifth dimension identifying a plurality of parties andcontext of activities of the individual to create a plurality ofmultidimensional scenarios.
 26. The avatar engine of claim 25, whereinthe synthesis engine does not synthesize all of the collectedinformation, wherein the operations further comprise: engaging in thecommunication exchange with the entity by way of the avatar according tothe series of the pre-determined queries.
 27. The avatar engine of claim25, wherein the collected information includes a frequency of use ofmedia resources by the individual, subscriber service information from asubscriber account of the individual, location data associated with theindividual, and wherein the operations further comprise: selecting theavatar from a plurality of selectable avatars according to a directivereceived from a strategy engine and a context of a metaphor generated bya metaphor engine; and presenting the avatar in combination with themetaphor created by the metaphor engine.
 28. A method, comprising:receiving, at a processor, a measure of a mood of an individual tointeract with an entity that is based on a synthesis associated withcollected information for a behavior of the individual, wherein thecollected information includes one of media content consumed by theindividual, images of the individual captured by a group of cameras at aplurality of locations that are utilized for determining activities ofthe individual and environments of the individual, audio recordings ofthe individual or a combination thereof, wherein the mood indicates anavailability of the individual and a receptiveness of the individual toaccept a request to interact with the entity, wherein the synthesis isof identified changes in the collected information without synthesizingall of the collected information, and wherein weighting factors areapplied to the collected information for synthesizing of the identifiedchanges, wherein the measure of the mood includes a group of dimensionscomprising a first dimension identifying a plurality of metaphorexpressions to express the mood of the individual to interact with theentity, a second dimension identifying a plurality of techniques todisclose the activities of the individual to the entity, and a thirddimension identifying a group of strategies to provide the entity adegree of access to the individual; and invoking, by the processor, anintermediary to interact with the entity responsive to the receiving ofthe measure of the mood, wherein the intermediary comprises an avatarthat presents queries according to a flowchart of a selected strategy,wherein the flowchart identifies pre-determined queries responsive touser input, wherein the selected strategy is selected from among thegroup of strategies according to the measure of the mood of theindividual, and wherein the group of strategies is pre-determined andstored, wherein the collected information includes a frequency of use ofmedia resources by the individual, subscriber service information from asubscriber account of the individual, and location data associated withthe individual, wherein the audio recordings of the individual arecaptured from a plurality of end user devices and are utilized for thedetermining of the activities of the individual and the environments ofthe individual, and wherein the group of dimensions of the measure ofthe mood includes a fourth dimension identifying a plurality ofintermediaries to negotiate with the entity the degree of access to theindividual, and a fifth dimension identifying a plurality of parties andcontext of activities of the individual to create a plurality ofmultidimensional scenarios.
 29. The method of claim 28, wherein theintermediary is an interactive avatar, and wherein the method comprisesdirecting interactions between the intermediary and the entity accordingto instructions received from a strategy engine.